City in for big electrical bill as South Lake Union grows

Neighborhood will need its own $100 million substation, utility says

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, April 28, 2005

If booming growth projections for South Lake Union hold, the city will have to pay for a new $100 million electrical substation in 10 years.

How it would be paid for, exactly where it would be built and precisely when it would have to be operating are all unknown, but yesterday a Seattle City Light official gave City Council members an update on growing energy needs.

Some predictions call for 24,000 more jobs and 8,000 more apartments and condominiums as South Lake Union is redeveloped as a hub for biotechnology. Vulcan Inc., a company owned by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, is driving most of the growth.

Vulcan representatives said last week that many of the projects planned in the neighborhood could be built within 15 years.

"That has been something we know is happening in the future, and we have speculated on where we might put a substation," City Councilwoman Jean Godden said yesterday. "It is not easy to site in South Lake Union. Property is appreciating, and there are some geologic factors. It is quite marshy near the lake."

During a forum at City Hall yesterday, Hardev Juj, customer service officer for City Light, said design work for the South Lake Union substation will have to start by 2012 or 2013.

"Unless the load comes faster," Juj said.

Godden said there could be several ways of paying for the substation. Options include a voter-approved levy, councilmanic bonds (which the council can issue without going to the voters) or borrowing by City Light.

"I would think there could be several choices when we come to that point," Godden said.

The South Lake Union substation would be in addition to one already being planned at Interbay, which probably would be brought on line first. City Light now has 14 substations.

For now, by adding capacity to the Broad Street substation, the utility expects to be able to meet demand.

Timing is everything, especially when it comes to building costly substations.

Juj said yesterday that some utility officials breathed a sigh of relief when the predicted electrical demands and growth connected with the dot-com boom downtown didn't materialize a few years ago.

"It could have been a nightmare for us," he said. "You need time to build capacity."

It takes about three years to design and build a substation, he said.

City Light spokesman Bob Royer cautioned that "there is no magic number" when it comes to saying exactly when the new substation would be built. "It could be 10 years; it could be 30," he said.

"The rates of growth at South Lake Union are uncertain; we have to be as flexible as possible. We want to defer building an expensive facility like that for as long as possible," he said. "We can move the capacity we have around the city and comfortably meet our commitments."